Another Flycatcher: Ensenada (Puntarenas, Costa Rica), 28th April 2022 (1 Viewer)

[C B Allen]

On a day where we saw a lot of flycatchers and eventually caught up with Nutting's Flycatcher which was our target species.

Trawling through photos recently came upon these (I've had to do some PP to pull detail up as bird was in quite deep shade). Any reason why this isn't Brown-crested Flycatcher? We recorded definite Brown-crested at this site/date but just worried a little that this bird seems quite weak-billed compared to how I remember previous Brown-crested albeit those were a few years ago & in the USA and wondered if there is any regional variation in bill size/depth ...

Thanks - Chris

 

[THE_FERN]

Without certainty...

Why isn't this another Nutting's?

To me it looks like this:

https://macaulaylibrary.org/
07081

I think for brown-crested I'd expect a more obvious contrast between the rufous in the wing and the pale areas, also for the crown to be more brown

 

[C B Allen]

Thanks for the comments. My alternativee was Nuttings (I have dozens of photos of "obvious" Nutting's from the same site/date ... examples below). I was trying to avoid going too much on colour given I'd had to PP these images to get more details out of them which can tend to alter the overall colour cast and go more on structure. I'd compared with my own pics & those on eBird of both species but was still not convinced either way.

In the great scheme of things it's not too important (as I'm happy both species were in the area) but wanted to avoid loading inaccurate photos into eBird!

Thanks - Chris

 

[njlarsen]

Any image where you can see the rump? should be different color.

It looks like there is one feather between brownish primaries and pale secondaries that is in between - this should be one point for Nutting's, because Howell writes that primaries blend with secondaries in this species - my interpretation is that this means that the shift is more gradual rather than abrupt.
Niels

 

[KC Foggin]

It sure does look like The Fern's example link!

 

[C B Allen]

I've trawled though the numerous pics of both species on eBird and taken on board the responses here but I'm still not convinced either way. Again, largely discounting colour because of PP on the original pics, the bill on the bird in the 2nd set of photos (Nutting's for sure) is relatively short compared to the bill on the bird in the first 2 photos even though my initial concern was this wasn't as heavy billed as other Brown-crested I've seen.

In any case, the photos are of 2 different birds but think I'll just put this down to experience and log the Nutting's I'm happy with & bin the others.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

 

[AveryBartels]

That small bill puts me firmly in the Nutting's camp